Composition
Part One: You are Entering Camp Green Lake
The first part of the novel Holes by Louis Sachar has three narrative threads, two of which take place in the past.
The life of Stanley Yelnats (present)
After a brief description of Camp Green Lake (Chapter 1), the reader is introduced to Stanley Yelnats. The focus is on his complete lack of luck. He is on his way to Green Lake Reformatory - and this although he is actually innocent (Part 1, 1%). A brief look into the Yelnats' family history quickly reveals that the situation Stanley finds himself in is no accident: ever since his great-great-grandfather was cursed by an old woman, happiness has been a stranger in the Yelnats' house (Chapter 3).
After this exposition, the reader quickly realizes that fate is not on the side of the main character. The next chapters (Chapters 4-12) describe Stanley's adjustment to the harsh conditions of Camp Green Lake. He has to get used to the meager food, the rough way in which his peers treat each other, and the extreme physical effort he makes when digging holes. While he is digging his first hole (Chapter 7), the life of his great-great-grandfather is interwoven with the main plot. It becomes clear that Stanley's family is indeed suffering from a curse.
Chapter 13 builds the first noticeable tension in the plot: while digging holes, Stanley finds a lipstick case engraved with the initials K. B. When the Warden then fanatically orders to dig in the area of the supposed find (Stanley has given his find to the unofficial leader of his group, X-Ray) (Chapters 14-17), it becomes clear to Stanley and the reader for the first time that the teens don't just have to dig to improve their character: "They were definitely looking for something. And whatever they were looking for, they were looking in the wrong place." (Part 1, 57%).
In the next chapters (Chapters 18-22), the tension fades slightly. The social relationships, which will still be important for the progress of the plot, are examined closely. When Stanley takes the blame for a theft in which he is actually innocent (Chapter 19), not only is the Warden's brutality toward her inmates and colleagues revealed (Chapter 20), but a friendship develops between Stanley and Zero (Chapters 21-22).
Between several flashbacks to the life of Katherine Barlow (Chapters 23, 25, 26, 28), the friendship between Stanley and Zero grows. The other youths are not pleased with the agreement between the two, namely that Stanley will teach Zero to read and write and Zero will help Stanley dig in return (Chapter 27).
Zero opens up more and more to Stanley and finally confides in him his real name, Hector Zeroni (Chapter 27). Thanks to the flashback in Chapter 7, the reader immediately knows that Zero is the descendant of the person who put a curse on the Yelnats family.
The introduction to the second part is set. The reader can now expect Stanley to accidentally find a way to banish the curse on his family - and thus turn fate back in his favor.